The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1887-05-21


fined to few persons and restricted to
distant ages we come to a principle of a
universal inspiration as limitless as the
grace of God and the life of man. Every
man is inspired -breathes in the life of
the eternal One, and the inspiration of
the greatest saint is alike in character to
the inspiration of the feeblest novice in
the works of virtue and goodness.
1t is the same in character, but as vast
ly different in its quality. The historian
| is inspired; the poet is inspired, and as
long as the charms Of melodious num-
bers fascinate the heart, so long will the
blind bard of ancient Greece remain the
ideal and the measure of epic poetry.
And as long as the English language is
spoken the name of Shakespeare will be
venerated as that of the Master of Trag-
edy. In the expression of the varied and
complex emotions of the human heart, he
is unsurpassed, and as the intellectual
life of the world expands in it's onward
march, it is lifting the genius of our En-
glish poet to an unchallenged supremacy
in the literature of the heart. To the
great orators of the world, as they swayed
the eager multitudes, have come the inspi-
ration of God. And the preachers and
the artists and the statesmen, and the
philanthropists, whose names glorify the
pages of history and shed fresh lustre
upon the human race, have all been
guided, inspired and strengthened by the
ever present victorious life of God.
In this sublime category stands Jesus
of Nazareth. AS Homer leads the world
in the line of epic composition, as his
Odyssey and Iliad forever remain the
standard by which the greatness of all
heroic poetry will be determined; as
| Shakespeare has furnished models by
which all tragic writing will be judged,
as the world goes back to Demosthenes
as the ideal orator, and as all creations of
artistic genius are compared to the i'm
mortal marbles and breathing canvas of
Phidias and Praxiteles; so, in higher
sense does Jesus Christ stand as the in.
carnatiop of spiritual excellence, the ideal
of human perfection, and the great stand
ard of spiritual progress in all ages. The
object of divine favor flowing into the
hearts of men is life, and that is the one
great object of all Christ's labors, aspira-
tions and sufferings. 81 am come, he cries,
"that they might have life, and that more
abundantly." And so if we look into the
matter deeply we shall find that in the
lines of moral and spiritual progress, in
all that is meant by religion, by faith, by
affectional social and morallite he stands
alone.
His gospel exheusts the possibilities of
progress in this direction. In his hands
the simplest affairs of life are transfgur-
ed with the presence of a heavenly glory
and all its homely details are invested
with new beauty. The love the father
bears his child is the type of the love of
the Heavenly Father. And the home with
its circle of holy affections is true cos
mos, the image of the heavenly uni
verse in which the love of God is the
life of men, and all the progress of his
providence moves to their increase in
spiritual things. And that Providence
demands and supplies a Christ just as it
demands and supplies a Cicero, q Sem
eca or a Whittier. It's order is not brok-
en- but perfect and by it all the wants
and needs of progressive humanity are
noted and satisfied. When Christ speaks,
he speaks as a Master because the full
ness of truth and the limitless inspirations
of God are upon him. His gospel is au-
thority because no higher statements of
the relations of the Divine Being toward
us, or of our relations to one another, or
of the future beyond, are possible. Who
ever penetrates the fields OF morals, faith
and religion in future days will find that
his noblest truths, his Hottest conceptions
of the universe are only rehearsals of the
great doctrines that Jesus Christ long
ago proclaimed to the world. Others
may give to the race noble principles
sublime precepts, but they lie here in
these pages either in reality or else are
fairly deducible from the words of the
Master. Social science, philanthropy,
justice, civiization-all that is great and
noble in our modern life goes back to
the despised Nazarene for its origin and
sustaining power.
The handbreadth of Christianity that
Scribes and Pharisees saw rising on the
Galilean sky, eighteen centuries ago, has
climbed up the heavens until it over
shadows the whole world and all men
feel its presence.
But considering more particularly the
authority of Jesus Christ we discover
that it rests upon two things: (D The
character Of his gospel; and % The no.
bility of his life.
The doctrines of the gospel in so far
as they are special and peculiar, may be
hurriedly considered under several divi-
sions: % Those that teach us the nature
and character Of God, and the relations
he sustains toward us; (2) Our duty to
him and to each other; and (3l Oar des-
tiny in the life immortal.
[. In what he had to teach Us, OF the
Divine Being, Christ, differed radically
from all that had gone before him. He
deifes not infinite truth, or the majesty
of government alone, nor any of the par
tal and incomplete ideas Of the pagan